Equity, diversity and inclusion

You can use this series of pages to understand your core legal responsibilities to your employees. For information about an employer’s responsibilities to its volunteers, read our guidance on involving volunteers.

This page isn’t a substitute for legal advice and doesn’t cover every aspect of employment law. For legal advice, contact an employment lawyer or human resources (HR) specialist. For up-to-date guidance and support with employment law, please visit our trusted supplier WorkNest.

Employers, managers and employees should understand the importance of equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) in all areas of work, including:

• recruitment
• training
• equal pay
• part-time workers/fixed-term contracts
• religious beliefs and practice
• dress code
• redundancy
• flexible working.

You can find more information on making your workplace inclusive on Acas’s website.

Every employee has the right not to be discriminated against or to suffer a detriment (be treated unfairly) because of any of the nine protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010.

These are:

• age
• disability
• gender reassignment
• marriage and civil partnership
• pregnancy and maternity
• race
• religion and belief
• sex
• sexual orientation.

When looking to hire new staff, employers should consider advertising in at least two different places to reach a wide range of people from different backgrounds.

Employers can promote their values as an equal opportunities employer by stating that applications are welcome from:

• anyone who believes they meet the essential requirements of the job
• anyone under-represented in the organisation – this is called positive action. Find out more about positive action on Acas's website.

EDI should also have a place in the training, development and promotion of staff. This can include:

• training and developing managers and employees in EDI
• introducing EDI policy from the very beginning as part of new staff inductions
• considering EDI in performance review processes and promotions, to avoid any question of anyone being discounted or overlooked due to their protected characteristics.

Find out more about Acas’s training on EDI.

Under the Equality Act 2010, employers have certain legal obligations towards employees with disabilities.

Under the act, a person has a disability if:

• they have a physical or mental impairment
• the impairment has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on their ability to perform normal day-to-day activities.

For the purposes of the act:

• ‘a physical or mental impairment’ covers a range of conditions, including cancer, MS, HIV and AIDS
• 'substantial' means more than minor or trivial
• 'long-term' means the effects last (or are likely to last) at least 12 months
• 'normal day-to-day activities' include everyday things like eating, washing, walking and going shopping.

If your employee is disabled, you have a duty to make ‘reasonable adjustments’ to help them do their job.

This includes things like:

• providing practical aids and technical equipment
• allocating tasks the disabled employee can’t do to another employee
• a phased return to work after absence due to disability.

gov.uk offers more guidance on employing people with a disability or health condition.

All employees have the right to equal pay, benefits and terms and conditions if they’re doing equal work (the same or similar work, or work of equal value) for the same employer, regardless of their gender.

Acas provides more guidance on an employee’s right to equal pay.

Part-time workers have the right to be treated no less favourably than comparable full-timers because of their part-time status. Any less favourable treatment can only be justified where there are objective grounds for it.

Acas offers more information on the rights of part-time workers.

Employees on fixed-term contracts have the right to be treated no less favourably than comparable permanent employees, unless it can be objectively justified.

gov.uk has more guidance on the rights of people on fixed-term contracts.

Employees are protected from discrimination, harassment and victimisation because of:

• religion
• philosophical belief
• not having a religion or a philosophical belief.

You should check your workplace dress code doesn’t discriminate against any protected characteristics.

When selecting staff for redundancy, you should be careful not to make decisions affected by unconscious bias and protected characteristics.

See our guidance on redundancy.

Find out more about unconcious bias on Acas’s website.

Allowing employees flexible working where possible could avoid the risk of discrimination against an employee because of a protected characteristic.

For example, an employee might want to work flexibly because of:

• caring responsibilities
• health issues
• religious needs.

Read our information on flexible working.

Our guidance can help you get started with improving your approach to equity, diversity and inclusion.

• Get started with equity, diversity and inclusion – our guide to the concepts of equity, diversity and inclusion and why voluntary organisations should act
• The Equality Act: Your legal duties – an overview of the Equality Act 2010
• Respond to discrimination – links to organisations that can help if you’re worried about discrimination or harassment in your organisation
• Equity, diversity and inclusion policy – a sample document to help you develop your own policy